The life of a termite starts with a queen termite laying fertilized eggs. To the naked eye, termite eggs would be easy to recognize because they are large enough for people to see them. Termite eggs have an ovoid shape and look like a smaller version of caviar, except that the eggs are white and semitransparent. Queen termites will lay dozens of eggs at a time, so you would see a lot of them together. However, these eggs are not laid out in the open for just anyone to see them. Queen termites typically lay their eggs in very sheltered locations which are not clearly visible to humans. This could be in the interior of a house’s walls or even in nests underneath the ground where the colonies are located. This is why humans won’t usually notice the eggs until they come across them by accident. Queen termites pick sheltered locations in order to protect their eggs from outside intruders who wish to do them harm.

The traditional way in which termite eggs are discovered is when the infestation becomes noticeable. As a colony grows, the adult winged termites will fly away from their birthplace in search of a new location to create their own colony in. It is at this time when humans notice there are termites near their home. This will lead them to investigate around their home and look for signs of an infestation. Typically they will notice piles of sawdust or mud tunnels before realizing they are infested with termites. This will cause them to try and find the location of the colony in order to destroy it. If the colony lies in a wooden sheltered structure above the ground then they will likely be located and the termite eggs will be seen. If the colony is underneath the ground then termite bait or nematodes will be used to destroy the eggs without seeing them with the naked eye.

If you discover a termite colony for yourself then you will probably see worker and soldier termites scattered all around the eggs. The soldier termites are there to protect the eggs from outside predators and the worker termites are there to nurture the larva termites that come out of the newly hatched eggs. It is very rare that you would just see the termite eggs alone with no other termites around. If you do then it is probably a brand new colony that was formed by reproductive termites who are trying to be the new king and queen of that colony. At the very least, you will see the king and queen near the eggs.